Sweet, Spicy, Crispy and an old Chinese takeout favourite. This recipe really has it all, so if you are missing Chinese nights then this is the recipe for you!

Ingredients

1 pound flank or sirloin steak or shrimp or chicken

¾ cup cornstarch

½ cup water

2 eggs

2 medium carrots

1 red bell pepper

1 green onion chopped green onions

¼ cup finely chopped or shredded fresh ginger (or have a jar of shredded on hand)

4 teaspoons prepared garlic or (4 garlic cloves, chopped)

1 tablespoon canola oil *plus extra for frying

3 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce

2 tablespoons white wine

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 tablespoon gluten-free sesame oil

½ cup sugar

1/4- 1/2 teaspoon crushed chili flake

Cooking Instructions

1. Slice partially frozen steak across the grain into narrow strips.

2. Place cornstarch in a large mixing bowl. Add water gradually while you are whisking. Beat eggs into cornstarch mixture. Toss in beef and stir to coat. *If the batter is too thin, add in a little more cornstarch a tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.

3. Pour 1 inch of oil into a heavy bottomed pot, heat to boiling hot, but not smoking. Add a quarter of the beef to the oil at a time. Separate with a fork and cook, stirring frequently, until crispy. Remove, drain on paper towel and set aside. (This part can be done in advance.)

6. Combine soy sauce, wine, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and chili flakes in a medium bowl. Add to vegetable mixture and bring to a boil, stirring as so sugar dissolves and the sauce begins to thicken and become sticky.

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So with the holiday season soon approaching I thought that a blog featuring products to splurge on for incredibly tasty baking and cooking would be a great help to those of you who plan to do some baking this season.

My top four gluten free flour blends (these are all certified gluten free) and in my last year of trying all different sorts of brands of flour these were the only ones I found amazing enough to even mention.

1. Cloud 9 All-purpose flour blend
– This gluten free flour is available for sale at Costco wholesale stores for less than 15 dollars per 44 ounce bag (5.5 cups). They offer cup-for-cup flour replacement with a blend of rice,buckwheat, tapioca flours with already added xanthan gum (the “gluten” in these gluten-free blends) it is a high fibre blend.

2. Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour

– This is a fantastic blend for cakes and cookies, breads, muffins, pancakes, and waffles. Bobs Red Mill All-Purpose gluten free flour can be found at co-op, superstore, and planet organic stores. It contains a blend of garbanzo flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, and fava flour. This does not come with the xanthan gum already added however there is a guide on the bag with recommended xanthan amounts for different types of baking. Slightly more expensive averaging about 12 dollars per 44 ounces (about 5.5 cups)*They also have incredible brownie mix, pizza crust mix, and chocolate chip cookie mix

3. XO Flour Co.

-It is a all natural baking four blend that is guaranteed to contain no rice, gluten, wheat or soy and it a blend of cassava flour, coconut flour and potato starches. I have only seen these in Calgary COOP stores and the price is around $9.98 per 21 ounces (almost 3 cups).*They also have some other amazing cookies mixes (sugar cookies, gingerbread, chocolate peppermint, pumpkin pecan loaf and more) this product is pricey but the results it yields is so worth it.

4.

Pamela’s Artisan Flour Blend

– This is a more speciality item that I have tried once, it is a decent product however pricey for what little you get. This is a product you can only find at the calgary gluten free store or planet organic, or community natural foods. It would not be my first choice for baking as it is harder to come across and is not as readily available and is rather expensive.*This brand has incredible chocolate cake mix that is to die for.

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Hello All,
So for my first blog post in this celiac forum I thought that I would give a little bit of information about myself and what I like to call my on-going “battle” with celiac disease.

My name is Chelsea, I have lived in Calgary, Alberta for all of the twenty-one years of my life thus far. I am a nursing student, with a great love of dogs including my puppy peanut and for the last 9 months of my life I have been living the celiac life.

When I was diagnosed last January I found myself extremely lost and desperate for answers or clues on how to live gluten free affordably, to find what did not taste like cardboard and to find bread that wasn’t as a dense and chewy as shoe leather. I felt alone in this, I cried for days…okay maybe it was a few weeks before things began to normalize and I saw the light in all of this.

After being booted out of the examination room by my gastroenterologist with the horrifying news all while still slightly drugged from the biopsy I realized I knew absolutely nothing about celiacs disease which sucks so here is your first lesson folks:

1. Celiac disease is a autoimmune disease affecting the small intestinal tract specifically your duodenum. The duodenum is lined with villi and these villi are spiked with microvilli which are ‘fingers’ that grab onto the nutrients from your digested foods and allows your body to absorb them.

In celiac disease the persons immune system sees the gluten from wheat, barely or rye as a dangerous invader and attacks it in turn damaging those delicate fingers (villi and microvilli) that allow your body to reap the benefits of the foods you eat.

The moral of this biology lesson: celiacs who eat gluten absorb very little to nothing at all of the foods they eat which means malnutrition which can lead to a wholly of problems including acne, decreased immune defences, thin hair or hair loss, osteoporosis, anemia, depression and in some cases glutens taxing nature on your immune system increases your risks of certain cancers.

So after learning all that I realized that this was not something I could ignore and began hunting down the creme de la creme of gluten free products. Which I then collected over the last nine months and decided to share with you all. I hope you enjoy this forum and that for those of you who are newly celiac may not feel so alone in this gluten free battle after reading this.

I am very excited to share my experiences and the experiences of my celiac friends with you, cheers!